1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a motor drive device capable of notifying a user of the abnormal flow of a fluid flowing into a heat sink, and to a method for such notification.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to cool an electronic instrument including a heating element such as a power element, a heat sink which defines a flow path, and a fan for generating airflow in the flow path of the heat sink are mounted on the electronic instrument.
An electronic instrument is known in which the temperature of the electronic instrument is measured, and clogging of a flow path in a heat sink is detected based on the measured temperature (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-202808).
A motor drive device which drives a motor included in a machine tool or the like may control power supplied to the motor so that the power is allowed to greatly fluctuate in a short time. In this case, the temperature of the motor drive device greatly fluctuates in a short time. Conventionally, it has been difficult to detect malfunction such as clogging of a flow path in a heat sink based on the temperature of a device when, e.g., the temperature of the device greatly fluctuates in a short time.